One of the more touristy activities up here in the Thousand Islands region of New York is visiting Boldt Castle. I found it to be a thought-provoking visit, with my ruminations about the experience taking me far out of the usual tourist mindset.
George Boldt didn’t start out rich. He was an immigrant to the US from Prussia, at the age of 13. His first job was as a kitchen worker in New York City. His ambition propelled him higher and higher, first managing a dining room, then hotels, marrying well, continually striving, until he was not only hosting the super-rich, he became one of them himself. He merged the two Astor-owned hotels into the now legendary Waldorf-Astoria, becoming its general manager, and, as a side note, he came up with the concept of room service, and the phrase “the customer is always right.”
George was definitely doing well for himself. He bought an island in the Thousand Islands region of upstate New York, and his family stayed there a few summers in a framed cottage. Boldt had bigger ideas, though, aiming to build a castle in the Rhineland style, as a measure of his affection for his wife, Louisa. Construction started in 1900, ramping up to about 300 workers by 1904.
Here’s a look at the top of one end of the castle. Just look at that detail on eveery single inch of it. Imagine how much work it took to create all that. Think about it for a minute: every stone, piece of slate, and stick of wood, and every worker, had to be shipped across the water.
The construction site (aka the Island) needed power, so one of the first projects was to build a power house and get generators running to create electricity. The Power House was the size of a decent dwelling, with a design echoing the castle’s towers and fancy stonework. More than enough room for most people to live in. But not the Boldts.
Boldt imagined that they would host visitors during the summer season, so the architects created an arrival area that would clearly indicate this was a castle. That building off on the left is where they lived in the summers while the castle was being built. Yeah, none of this is the actual castle, they’re just the side pieces to complement the castle itself.
This is the castle. Or as the Brits might say, quite the pile.
Here’s is the interior staircase. Honestly, the whole house felt like a series of set pieces from a TV show (Downtown Abbey or The Gilded Age, either would suffice. Or maybe Titanic and that staircase where Jack and Rose meet). Well, except for the gift shop on the second floor, full of overpriced things stamped with “Boldt Castle” because who doesn’t need a shotglass or a t-shirt from Boldt Castle?
And then, as the castle was being built, George’s dream was shattered. Louisa, his wife, died suddenly in New York City. He stopped construction, laying off all the workers and letting the castle, half-finished, descend into ruins. Seven decades later, the Thousand Islands Bridge Authority (TIBA) took it over and finished building the castle, including furnishing the interior rooms.
The room below would have been Louisa’s but it was never actually hers. It has never actually been anything other than window dressing for tourists, giving them something to snap a photo of and think, “oh, yes, I could see myself in this room.” It is a lovely room, but, like the whole of Boldt Castle, it glorifies the Gilded Age, at a time when robber barons and bankers were hoarding all the wealth they could and leaving the rest of America to scramble for meager leftovers. I’m willing to bet that most of the people snapping photos of the castle come from families that never could have afforded anything remotely close to this back in the day. Or now, either. I know mine couldn’t have. We were farmers, leatherworkers, mill workers, and probably would have fit right in with the 300 workers on the island.
So, while the castle does great business as a tourist attraction, I’m not quite sure what the point actually *is* for why it exists and why it’s such a tourist attraction. Showing the masses how the 1% lived at the tail end of the Gilded Age – who does that really serve? It elevates the obscenely wealthy, puts them on a pedestal that the rest of us are supposed to, what, admire? It seems to me Boldt Castle just illustrates the gap between the super-wealthy at the top of the heap and the rest of us living down here in the real world, scrambling to make ends meet, save up money for vacations, and maybe have a fancy meal out once a week or once a month. We pay the $15 admission and get to imagine what it would be like to live here, knowing deep down we’ll never even come close to this level of luxury accommodation.
According to Wikipedia, as of 2020, over $50 million has been spent on restoration and rehabilitation work on the Castle and surrounding structures, as of 2020. $50 million dollars. That’s a lot of tourist dollars and/or state agency money just to build and maintain a glorified island monument to a family rich enough they could just walk away from all of it without a second glance. Maybe I’m just a socialist at heart, but obscenely wealthy people — then and now — should not be glorified for the vast homes, massive boats, or big jets they own. Or the castles they didn’t bother to finish building.
Spending all this wealth became for many a more or less full-time occupation. A kind of desperate, vulgar edge became attached to almost everything they did.
A tad more room than your little place on wheels, eh? It is an architectural marvel, and it does represent a time passed, but other than an historical landmark, the money could be better spent. Still, lovely to look at the pictures. Saved me 15 bucks and some airfare.
Great article Annie. We have so many “piles” in the UK. A lot owned now by the state because the aristocratic way of life couldn’t be maintained and they fell into disrepair. I do like to visit them… they’re often a lot older than 1900-ish. I like the historical back story (tho my lineage would DEF be land people paying rent to the rich!). I prefer the look of this rich lifestyle to the current zillionaires!
Thx for sharing this Annie
I’ve not been since it has been extensively remodeled. Glad you got to see it. I was recently visiting in Croatia and saw a similar structure—all stone, high castle over lake—Korčula. So it’s more a human thing than an American thing, at least in my experience.
I think these thoughts every time I visit a cathedral and the like. AND for what?
We’ve traveled up that way, mostly visited the many forts along the river. We did stop at a mid-largish home to tour it…it wasn’t as grand as this. We didn’t see this or we likely would have visited it. I don’t know that we would have been as disturbed by the thought of how wealthy they were…but I don’t know. It would depend on how the history of the building was presented. I’m always curious about architecture from different periods. Visiting Biltmore I have often had thoughts similar to yours about the overly wealthy, but I’ve also come away with an appreciation for beauty, especially in the gardens and the grounds.
We met a guy from Bangalore in December. He spoke of grieving the change in India from a desire for knowledge to a desire for material wealth. He called it “greed over knowledge.” This phrase has stuck with me.
I’ve heard of this castle, Annie, but I’ve never seen it. You have given me a fabulous tour, and it is now on my NY to-do list. Thank you for sharing your wonderful post!
Rreminds me of a castle moved brick (or maybe stone) by brick to the Napa wine area. I toured the castle with my son Jon – and while it was interesting to see – I had toured many castles in Germany over the years. I kept thinking why would some one buy a castle, have it dismantled, every stone numbered, ship to California and put back together? Struck me as waste of money – how many visitors would be needed to repay that expense or was it to display that he had more money than brains?
I agree with your assessment. We did not tour the castle, we did not know it’s history. We simply had a dog waiting for us back at our trailer as we dared to tour the islands without her. I’m glad we made that choice.
I can imagine reworking the purpose of the site to be a place where people come together. It needs to be used enough to have some scratches and dents, the bedroom well work, and things hanging out of drawers. the kitchen should be full of conversation and clanging pots, and the dining room full of people discussing the days events. It could be a school, a conference center, even housing for the unhoused, who work there for pay and keep the place going. Building a community there would make it a living place, instead of a museum.
As a friend used to say, a palatial lookin’ joint.
The American Way; adoration of wealth above the worthwhile.